Day 5 - Yellowstone National Park

3:30am NZ time my alarm goes off, and it's well well well below freezing here in West Yellowstone National Park. I showered, shaved, got rugged up real warm, had a bite to eat and was almost done when I heard a big rumbling outside and mere seconds later a knock on my door. The snow coach had arrived!

I climbed in and we set off. Since I was first to be collected I got the front seat which was extra fun cos I was always first off and had the best view. We collected the rest of the group and set off at a blazing crawl for Yellowstone National Park. There was a thick fog out and it was somewhere in the region of –15 to -20°C!

Yellowstone is the world's first national park, and covers a large chunk of northwestern Wyoming (and a little bit of Montana and Idaho). It's geologically very active with numerous springs, geysers, warm patches and so forth. For some reason, despite not being near any plate boundaries, it is a...

Day 4 - Wells, NV to West Yellowstone, MT

Pewwww smelly motels. There used to be a time where I could tolerate them, but my patience has worn thin and now I die a little inside each time I spend a night in a smelly motel. This one was ok, however the bedding smelled musty and the pillows were positively gruesome, all limp and floppy and musty. Yum yum. So that coupled with the local that decided to warm up his pickup at 6am by revving it repeatedly for 5 minutes, meant I was up pretty early and on the road unfashionably early.

I had a quick snoop around some of my previous hunting spots but no trains were to be seen, which is a shame as the scenery was looking stunning!

I hopped on the road and was soon driving along an endless road towards the Idaho border. I passed some weird rocks there were big and round and just piled up all over the land scape. Looking back there were some stunning views of the ranges.

I stopped at...

Day 3 - Lake Tahoe, CA to Wells, NV

Ahh Nevada, a state I can understand. California is all fast and noisy, but Nevada… such vast open spaces, and such amazing scenery.

Lazy start today, packed the SUV and was off on my way. Wonderfully clear and sunny, the internet reckoned it was -8°C outside but the car said 0°C which seemed closer to the truth; regardless it was slightly chilly but hardly unpleasant. Drove over the top and was soon on I80. Approaching the Nevada border I saw flumes alongside the freeway, from what I've found these days from the mining days.

Past Reno I thought I saw a nuclear reactor, but turns out it's a combined cycle plant and a gas power station. I stopped in at Reno to visit Wal-Mart and got thoroughly lost, but eventually emerged with clothes, pyjamas, hundreds & thousands coated chocolate donut holes, contact lens cleaner, and some dried cranberries! Just what a boy needs on the road.

Soon I was out of the...

Day 2 - Donner Pass Railfanning

Had a solid evenings sleep and woke up around 8am as my neighbour had a shower, ahh the wonders of cheap motels and noisy plumbing. Got another hours sleep and then did my morning ritual or email checking, route planning, weather forecasting, and car packing. Headed off for Truckee but first stopped at the lake to get a few photos.

 

Was a nice balmy 3°C down at the lake and it was snowing lightly when I left the motel. I pressed on for Truckee and arrived just in time to see the tail end of a container train scooting through. Never mind, there'll be heaps more, right?

I parked up in Truckee and went for a wander around, admiring such beauties as the Vandura 2500, and the "Jax" Truckee Diner.

 

I also checked out the recently overhauled spreaders that UP use to keep Donner Pass open during the winter. These are pretty serious pieces of kit with numerous adjustable ...

Day 1 - Christchurch to Lake Tahoe

Well I'm back in the USA! My journey started with a couple of days in Auckland under the careful eye of my girlfriend, Rachel, before a big goodbye and a careful squeak through the scales (.1kgs over the limit for both carry on and checked bags). Fairly uneventful flight on a massive 747-400. I had a window seat and a spare seat next to me so could try a few different sleeping positons. 12 or 13 hours later we touched down and I went through customs. The lady I got was very cold and she didn't seem to like my idea of a road trip and referred me to "secondary screening". There a young guy had a chat with me and loved my idea of a road trip, in fact in his previous life he was a biker and he started writing down a bunch of "must visit" places. He wished me luck and that was that. I collected my bag and was on my way to the rental centre.

Rental guy took a liking to me and (for a small extra fee) rustled up a true 4wd Jeep Grand Cherokee, the only one the had left. Michigan pl...

MMP

It is voting season here in New Zealand and I hope you'll excuse me while I talk a little bit about MMP. We have used the MMP system since 1993, however now we are faced with a choice on what voting system we would like to have. I have written a bit about MMP these last couple of days and am sharing my thoughts here.

A common complaint I have heard is "there are too many MPs in parliament, MMP sucks". Unfortunately this logic is a little flawed as every system in the referendum mandates 120 MPs in parliament, the committee in charge of the referendum has stated that this is not something that will change. In all the available voting system there will always be opposition MPs and all the bickering and infighting that brings. What changes is how fairly each voting system represents the desires of New Zealanders in the makeup of their parliament.

Another common suggestion I have heard is "NZ politics sucks, I want change". Firstly, what is it you wan...